American Idol 2015 Judges Discuss Top 11 Eliminations [Interview]

The American Idol 2015 Judges said goodbye to Maddie Walker and Adanna Duru this week when the two singers fell short of the votes needed to remain in the competition. Now the Judges are sharing their thoughts on the double elimination.

Speaking with FOX Audio Central, Harry Connick Jr. explained that it wasn’t about America making the right elimination choice this week but rather how the contestants performed in a way that they needed to connect.

Harry Connick Jr.: “The choices are never right or wrong, if you ask me. I think it’s what America is responding to. Unfortunately, for Adanna Duru and Maddie Walker, they didn’t make the connection last week that they needed to, but they’ve had an amazing run and I’m proud of both of them.”

Jennifer Lopez expressed her concern on the dwindling field of female contestants, though that makes you wonder why she went in on the idea of keeping Qaasim Middleton last week when the Save could have been reserved for one of the ladies instead.

Lopez: “I hated seeing two girls go. I’m not going to lie. I wish you know it would have been split because I don’t like seeing so few girls in the competition, but the girls that are left are very strong and hopefully they will be around for the long haul.”

I’m not sure how close we came to a Tyanna Jones elimination, but boy would have that been a mistake to see happen and not have the Save around to prevent it. The other ladies left really are going strong here with Jax, Joey Cook, and Tyanna as stand outs in the Top 9 crowd, but there’s little room for error if they want to get closer to the May 2015 season finale.

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3 Comments

Tyanna’s been floundering the past few episodes, and other than her hair, I don’t see a whole lot of flavor in her performances. Solid singing, .. usually. But, I cannot get over the image of Sunday Church Choir when I see her perform. She’s not the front man, the leader of the band, as Jax, e.g., has been in her past experiences. The last two weeks, as Harry pointed out, Tyanna’s just been off. I don’t know what it is, but it seems like she’s having identity issues on-stage.

Maddie is/was as solid vocally as Tyanna. I guess there just aren’t enough country voters to keep her on. I liked Maddie’s flare, however. Her personality and style came across better on stage than Tyanna. Ditto for Adanna.

Joey’s style is unique. But, its becoming cliche quickly. That last Cyndi Lauper performance (?) was a train wreck of massive proportion.

Yes, and there it is—Season 10. You had two country/western finalists. After season 10, there haven’t been a whole lot of country {songs or singers} on A.I.

I think one could make an argument that the decline in “country” participation also has had a tax on viewership of A.I. over the past 3-4 years.

Last year, Jessica Meuse was similar to Maddie—in my opinion, not a true country singer like Dexter Roberts or CJ Harris were—and, Jessica far out-survived both Dexter & CJ. If the country vote were as strong and as ever present, logically, CJ should have catapulted to the top 3 or 4 last year.

I have my doubts the country-vote is present at this point in A.I.’s viewership. I doubt there is a country-card to play; and I give Maddie praise for trying to weave back to a more mainstream singing position like Jessica played last season.